Sharples Says Maori Party has to Talk About Loss

Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples says
the party’s MPs and its members have to talk through what
went wrong in Ikaroa Rawhiti.

Speaking on TV3’s “The
Nation” Dr Sharples said the party had been against the
Labour organisation and the fact that the Mana candidates
was a popular TV personality in the campaign.

And Dr
Sharples said Te Ururoa Flavell’s leadership challenge was
also a factor.

“I've been up and down Ikaroa Rawhiti for
three weeks now and this is what people are saying, and we
have to come to terms with that and deal with it,” he
said.

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira last night on Maori
TV called on the Maori Party to merge with Mana.

Dr
Sharples said he is willing to work with Mr Harawira but has
ruled out dismantling the Maori Party as he wants it to be
part of future governments.

“We have always said we will
work with any party where we have the same kaupapa and the
same thing applies to Mana,” he said.

“Hone and I have
talked about a number of things, and I have a particular
role as a minister in different areas, and if Hone wants to
propose a joint programme on something, well we're waiting
to hear.

“In terms of dismantling the Maori Party and
joining the Mana Party, that will not happen, because we
promised our people that we would try and build a group of
Maori who have a Maori philosophy in parliament and build it
to such a level that no government could govern without us,
and we're going to keep doing that.” .

'THE
NATION'PITA
SHARPLESInterviewed by RACHEL
SMALLEY

Rachel Well the big
upset last night was the Maori Party result, their candidate
Na Raihania won 20% of the vote which is roughly the same
support he got in the general election. But the big
surprise is how the Mana Patty swept past the Maori Party to
take second place. The Maori Party's Co-Leader Pita
Sharples joins me now from Hastings. Kia ora Dr Sharples,
thank you for joining us this morning. Meka Whaitiri said
to us just then as you probably would have heard I think,
that there's a lot of hurt out there in the electorate. How
much responsibility does the Maori Party take for that
hurt?

Dr Pita Sharples – Maori Party
Co-Leader I think what Meka has said take into
account is that the successes she boasts of in 2008 were
before the depression, and the recession, a world recession
before the earthquake and all those things. The situation
has changed completely and of course there's hurt, there's
hurt throughout New Zealand, and we have to take care of
that, and what is sad is that they haven't noticed how much
the Maori Party has influenced the situation to help Maori
over this period.

Rachel Is the candidate
responsible then for this result in the electorate, or is
the Maori Party responsible?

Pita Oh I
think the Maori Party's responsible. I think also as she
said – Meka, congratulations you're great, you'll be a
good MP – but as she said Labour came out in force, the
whole army was here, even their leader was out here so much,
they made sure that they dotted their I's, transported
people and all that stuff, and that's what you do. And they
needed to do that because in the polls they're not doing too
well. As for coming third and not second, well Hamua's a
personality. You know he comes into all our homes, he
brings entertainment and things like this, and we like him.
You know he's somebody that people can relate to, and so
that was a personality one I feel. Congratulations to him,
but Na Raihania is an excellent candidate. I hope he stands
again because he is worthwhile having in government, in the
party.

Rachel Nonetheless does the swing
to Mana, to you suggest that Maori want to vote for a party
that’s left of centre?

Pita No it
doesn’t. Well it may to a certain extent. There's been
many reasons why our vote was low and as other media have
said and I see it's in the paper this morning, that I have
mentioned when asked that the leadership challenge on me was
in fact a factor that counted for our low vote. Because if
you look at it, in four years we have moved one billion
dollars' worth of assets and programmes for Maori, into the
Maori arena, and even including feeding people at
schools.

Rachel Okay nonetheless though
you still finished third in this vote. Maori still didn’t
vote with you to the same degree that you would have wanted
them to. You have an AGM coming up. Will you be
discussing at that AGM your relationship with
National?

Pita Oh most definitely. I
don’t see it as so much as a relationship with National, I
see it as our party having to get their act into gear, their
structure right, the infrastructure in place, and moving out
amongst the people, so they can be aware of how parliament
operates, and how you get rewards for your people and
programmes like the trade training programme we've got going
and things like that.

Rachel Do you
believe the vote also, or the lack of vote for the Maori
Party is also the result of perhaps some of the discontent
that’s been in the Maori Party's leadership, the fact that
there has been some you know eyebrows raised, what's going
on there, who's leading the party? Have you paid the price
for that as well?

Pita There's no doubt
that we have, and this is the feeling that’s been
communicated to me around the areas. I've been up and down
Ikaroa Rawhiti for three weeks now and this is what people
are saying, and we have to come to terms with that and deal
with it.

Rachel So who's responsible for
that, Te Ururoa Flavell or
yourself?

Pita It's about settling the
issue really, and I think both the parliamentary group as
well as the party hierarchy have to talk this through
together.

Rachel As I mentioned earlier
Dr Sharples, if Maori and Mana Party had combined you would
have won this seat. Will you reconsider? I spoke to you at
the start of this year and it was something that you were
considering whether or not you would work with Mana. Is
that something you should reconsider
now?

Pita We have always said we will
work with any party where we have the same kaupapa and the
same thing applies to Mana. Hone and I have talked about a
number of things, and I have a particular role as a minister
in different areas, and if Hone wants to propose a joint
programme on something, well we're waiting to hear. In
terms of dismantling the Maori Party and joining the Mana
Party, that will not happen, because we promised our people
that we would try and build a group of Maori who have a
Maori philosophy in parliament and build it to such a level
that no government could govern without us, and we're going
to keep doing that. The party's going to keep doing
that.

Rachel So Hone Harawira has to come
to you with a proposal?

Pita It's like
ACT and the Greens and others do. If they have a proposal
they come and see us, we talk it through. We support or
don’t support, or work together.
Yes.

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